Re: New Idea for EV Bike

["Peter VanDerWal" <vanderp@earthlink.net>]

> A ZAP (or similar-type) bike equipped with a specially modified drive
>roller. The roller is a custom fit to an aggressively treaded tire, 90 deg.
>features in the tread like knobs and robust ridges would be best. The
roller
>would deeply engage the tire when power is applied, but would never
generate
>any actual 'tension' with the tire. All power would be transferred to the
>sides of the tire's vertical features.

I would think that the tire tread would wear out very fast.

    Consider; the roller knobs will only be perfectly aligned with the tire
tread for a brief instant in time.
      Before that, the side of the roller knob will be at an angle to the
tire tread and will only be touching the tread at it's top corner (and
rubbing across it to wear it down).
     After the point where the knob and tread are aligned, the corner of the
knob will be rubbing across the treads side (and wearing it down).
    It won't take long for tread to wear to the point were it won't match
the knobs profile/spacing and it will start to wear even faster.

    Also friction will be very high, making your efficiency even worse than
normal (for a roller drive).

    You could counter some of this by making the tire tread out of a very
hard material. But then you'd pay for it in loss of traction and a very
rough ride.


But, as I said, that's just my thoughts on the matter (and I'm by no means
an expert).